Learning About Cat 6 Cable Testers
Just as their name suggests, Cat 6 cable testers are electronic devices that
are used to find out whether cables of this category have been connected in
a proper fashion or not. The cable testers would check this by measuring both
the physical properties and the electrical properties of the cabling. The physical
properties include the connections, such as whether the right color combinations
have been used in the connecting the wires to the RJ45 plug, and whether the
copper parts of the wires have properly been inserted into the metallic contacts
of the plug before crimping or not. The electrical properties tested include
the conduction of the wires among other things.
There are different kinds of cable testers available according to the different
types of cabling that is used. There are cable testers for the three main categories
of cables, i.e. Cat 3, Cat 5 and Cat 6, and also for the specific way in which
the cables are connected, such as twisted pair, coaxial or tri axial. Cable
testers used for checking Cat 6 cables are known as Cat 6 cable testers. Cable
testers can be used to check connectivity in the interface, such as the SCSI
(Small Computer System Interface) and the GPIB (General Purpose Interface Bus).
You can also get cable testers as per the plugs that are used in cabling, such
as RG6 or RG11. Specific cable testers can also be used to check cabling in
fiber optic cables, fiber channels and parallel, serial and universal serial
bus connections, along with IEEE 1394. Nowadays, the greatest use of cable testers
being made is in checking cabling in Ethernet and LAN (Local Area Network) cables.
There are different designs of Cat 6 cable testers available and you can choose
as per your convenience. The three main types according to their mode of usage
are the handheld, the tabletop and even those that can be mounted on stands
on the floor. When buying Cat 6 cable testers, there are certain specifications
that need to be kept in mind. The following are some of these specifications:-
- The number of contact points in the cable that can be tested simultaneously
- The resistance of the cable
- Maximum voltage that can be used with the cable
- Maximum current that can be applied at the test point
Cat 6 Cable testers can test with two main principles. One of them is using
a TDR (Time Domain Reflectometer) view of the test result. Another way of testing
is performing a test at high potential to check for conformance.
The uses Cat 6 cable testers are being put to are as troubleshooting tools in
environments where cables are used, and to create standards for cabling. The
standards laid down by the different electronic standards organizations such
as ANSI (American National Standards Institute), the EIA (Electronic Industry
Association) and the TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association) are by making
a prodigious use of cable testers. In troubleshooting, cable testers are used
to verify the authenticity and quality of connections, as well as compatibility
with network speeds and the technologies that are being used.
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